The conflict claimed 5,730 Russian soldiers, 17,400 Chechnya rebels, and about 80,000 civilians in Chechnya.
The events leading up to the war start off on September 7th, 1991 when members of the NCChP stormed the regional government headquarters occupied by the dissolving Soviet Communist Party with the aim of asserting independence from the Soviet Union. Seizing the headquarters resulted in the death of the mayor, Vitali Kutsenko, and effectively dissolved the regional soviet government in Chechnya (Souleimanov). That following month, democratic elections were held resulting in a landslide victory for the NCChP led by former Soviet Air Force general Dzhokhar Dudayev. His overwhelming increase in popular support ousted the interim administration backed by the quickly dissolving Soviet Union. Almost immediately after being instated as president, Dudayev and his administration declared independence from the Soviet Union, and established temporary sovereignty (Rigi). This triggered an almost immediate military reaction by the Kremlin. Troops were dispatched to Chechnya's capital Grozny, but were forced to withdraw after being greeted by Dudayev's armed forces at the airport. This inadvertently starting the long road to the bloody conflict that would ensue three years later.
Back at the Kremlin in Moscow, the newly elected regime of the new Russian Federation had just taken over. The Soviet Union was over, so that left the big question of what to do with all the Old Russian territory. The new regime made it very clear how they wanted this question answered by drafting the Federation Treaty (Coppieters). This treaty stated that all of Russia's old provinces would become part of the country again in exchange for central governmental power and a higher level of regional autonomy. This treaty was presented to all 88 federal subjects on March 31st, 1992. 87 of the 88 agreed with the terms and signed, but Chechnya did not.